Since 2014, Portugal has coordinated 172 projects

Under the European Union's (EU's) Widening programme, Portugal managed to raise 179.6 M€, from a total of 202 approved projects with 172 national coordinations, to support research and innovation.

National participation in this programme since 2014 has resulted in the implementation of 5 Centres of Excellence in Portugal:

• BIOPOLIS, in the area of biodiversity, of the Association BIOPOLIS;
• MIA-Portugal, in the area of active ageing, of the University of Coimbra;
• NOVA Institute for Medical Systems Biology, in the area of health, of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa;
• iMM-CARE, in the health area, of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes;
• The Gene Therapy CoE at the Centre of Portugal, in the area of health, of the University of Coimbra.

The Widening programme is one of the key instruments for strengthening national innovation ecosystems, promoting partnerships of excellence at international level and contributing to strengthening the European Research Area.

In the Horizon Europe Framework Programme, which began in 2021, Portugal has seen a total of 1082 projects approved, corresponding to an amount of 613 M€, until the first half of 2023, 68% of which was raised by Research Centres and Higher Education Institutions.

In the last framework programme (2014-2020), funding was 97.7 million euros (M€) and, since 2021, during the new Horizon Europe Framework Programme (2021-2027) 81.9 million euros (M€) have already been raised. The national success rate also increased between the two framework programmes, rising from 25.7% to 39.3%, continuing to be consecutively higher than the European average of around 14-15%.

COST, one of the actions of the Widening programme, has benefited more than 1,500 researchers annually and attracted more than 2,000 foreign researchers to Portugal for networking and mobility actions between 2014 and 2022. Job creation has also increased between the two framework programmes, where 200 scientific job opportunities generated since 2014, around half of that having emerged since 2021.

The Widening programme aims to support European Union (EU) countries with indicators below the European average in terms of research and innovation, with the aim of improving their performance in these areas.

In the Horizon 2020 framework programme (2014-2020), ANI monitored Widening's national participation. From 2021 onwards, as part of Horizon Europe, the monitoring of national participation has been carried out by the FCT.